features 06

Natural Habitat [amsterdam]
F.wish [online]
Tagged [london]
Unnatural Selection [shrewsbury]
OBG001 [hollywood]
GeekFest [dorset]
SIGGRAPH06 [boston]
sky-rail [online]
TORA [peterborough]

Vicky Isley & Paul Smith
Research Fellows in Computer Animation & Computer Art
NCCA, Bournemouth University
t: +44 (0) 1202 966699
e: info at boredomresearch dot net

boredomresearch is represented by [DAM] Berlin

Showroom Cinema 5
catch boredomresearch presenting their latest work & more since they have been Research Fellows at Bournemouth University on Thursday 7th December 2006 @ 7:30pm
Digital Space Sheffield

RealSnailMail Launch
thanks to all who helped us test our snail computational model at SPACE media arts, London. Watch this space for news as boredomresearch will be chipping & releasing their 'real' snails in a tank during the Enter, new media festival, Cambridge (25th-29th April 2007).

Unnatural Selection
OBG001 & the biomes are on show at Netherland Media Art Institute, Montevideo Amsterdam (4th Nov -17th Dec 2006)

images from left to right: OBG001(detail) & installed at Montevideo, Netherland Media Institute facade, Biome (detail) & installed at Montevideo

Amsterdam Weekly ask boredomresearch "Do you think that works like the two you are exhibiting in Natural Habitat are the future of nature in the city? What I mean is, is it possible that one day this will be the only way that city-dwellers have to interact with the natural world? "

boredomresearch response: The works included in Natural Habitat are among the first works where we have considered the frame and in particular viewing the work through as window. Even though we live in New Forest, England I find myself looking at nature often through windows. Whether it is looking at the forest through my windscreen or observing my garden through the living room window. This is more to do with windows as an opening in time rather than in a wall. We are living in a speed obsessed world so often our windows of the natural world have to be cut short.

It would be a sad day indeed if our systems were considered a City dwellers alternative
to the natural world. We do however attempt to capture some of the magic of the natural world but prefer to see this as an extension rather than an alternative.

related links
http://www.montevideo.nl
biome info - www.boredomresearch.net/biome
OBG001 info - www.boredomresearch.net/obg001

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f.wish
web project is launched on the 18th October at Folly's f.city festival, Lancaster

an online work built in processing

We are interested in engaging communities online through contemplative and rewarding experiences. In this web project we are presenting an alternative to your average forum.

Inspired by the Lam Tsuen Wishing Trees in Hong Kong where visitors make a wish by writing it on some yellow paper and tying it to an orange. Then they try their luck at getting it to hang on one of the branches of the wishing tree. If you wish hangs in the tree it will come true, if not the myth claims that you have made your wish too greedy.

Try your luck and submit a wish to Folly's tree at http://www.folly.co.uk/wish

In the case of the wishing tree we add weight and gravity to that which is weightless ethereal and of the mind.

related links
f.wish - http://www.folly.co.uk/wish
Folly - http://www.folly.co.uk
Review on Furtherfield.org by Aaron Steed

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Tagged [space.media.arts]
research & development for realsnailmail will be on show in [SPACE] London, 6-21 Oct 2006

new zealand garden snails

During the 'Tagged' exhibition, we will be projecting a computer model of our RealSnailMail system in development. So visit SPACE, London to see the not so real snail colony.

Eventually this system will be built into an installation version in 2007/08. Where an individual can visit the 'Real Snail Mail' website and email a message which travels at the speed of light to our server where it is entered into a queue. Here it waits until a snail wonders in range of a hot spot. The hot spot is our dispatch centre in the form of a RFID reader. This reader identifies the snail from the RFID chip attached to its shell and checks to see if it has not already been assigned a message to carry. If the snail is available it is assigned the message at the top of the list. It then slips away into the technological wasteland. Located at the other end of the pond (in the case of aquatic snails) is the drop off point. When, or if, the snail ever makes it here, it is identified by another reader, which then forwards the relevant message to the recipients email address; once again travelling at the speed of light.

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Unnatural Selection
OBG001 & the biomes are on show in Shrewsbury Art Gallery's Open exhibition (until 3rd Sept)

a screen shot from biome 003

Unnatural Selection is a major contemporary art competition and exhibition, linked thematically to the Darwin Summer Symposium, 13-14 July. Works from boredomresearchs' touring exhibition 'theatre of restless automata' are on exhibition in Shrewsbury Art Gallery & Museum and the Belmont Art Centre, Shrewsbury.

related links
biome info - www.boredomresearch.net/biome
OBG001 - www.boredomresearch.net/obg001
Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery - www.shrewsburymuseums.com
belmont art centre - www.belmontartscentre.org.uk

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Ornamental Bug Garden 001
is projected in the Leonardo exhibition @ ACE2006, Hollywood LA (14th-16th June 2006)

a screen shot of OBG001

The Leonardo art exhibition was the first to be held in conjunction with ACE2006 which is predominately a technical conference. The majority of work on show was in the original Leonardo exhibition, DIVA (Digital, Interactive and Visual Art) at Tokyo and Kyoto. This exhibition has been recognized as one of the most authorized event in the area of computer graphics and multimedia in Japan. It featured several artists who exhibited in SIGGRAPH 2005 of which included Max Chandler, Jean Pierre Herbert, Mark David Hosale & John Thompson.

In our current practise we are very inspired by Eastern influences and it was a good opportunity to meet and exhibit alongside some of Japans finest researchers and artists. It has also been beneficial research for a project we are about to commence using RFID tags as there was several projects which featured this use of technology. I would recommend this conference to researchers and practitioners who are keen to learn more on the latest gaming models, graphics, interfaces and mobile computing.

related links
ACE2006, international conference on advances in computer entertainment
OBG001 - www.boredomresearch.net/obg001

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GeekFest
create your own garden on Sat 10th June @ 175a beach hut, branksome chine (noon-3pm)

a boredomresearch low-fi landscape

boredomresearch will be investigating the creative possibilities of low-fi interactive landscaping systems as part of their ongoing research into human machine (or in this case rock) interaction. This will be your opportunity to come play in the sand and contribute to the cutting edge of boredomresearch.

related links
GeekFest info - www.geekfest.org.uk

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SIGGRAPH 2006
a randomSeed & three biomes will be exhibited in Boston, July/Aug 2006

machines collected from a biome

The biomes are from a series of six screen based computational art works that use generative
processes in the creation of a dynamic world. The virtual space of the world extends far beyond the bounds of the screen with an approximate circumference of a mile and is inhabited by abstract bodies (we refer to as machines) inspired by creatures of the deep. Each of these machines uses simple rules to generate their unique markings that develop a high visual complexity.

In randomSeed, viewers see small black dots industriously working their way through a circle of pixels. As the dots move through their simple world their endeavours yield structures that reflect patterns in nature. At first these appear as simple pathways weaving and intertwining. As time passes these grow in their complexity allowing the viewer to witness the formation of an intricate pattern with subtle visual qualities. This visual complexity continues to grow until the image takes on a textured appearance.

related links
http://www.siggraph.org/s2006
biome info - www.boredomresearch.net/biome
randomSeed info - www.boredomresearch.net/randomseed

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sky-rail
boredomresearchs' new web project launch in March 2006

detail of a machine created on skyrail

boredomresearch are pleased to announce the launch of their new website project.
http://www.sky-rail.net

“Thrown away your Meccano and Spirograph sets? Don’t worry visit sky-rail to rekindle your imagination.” If you like bizarre inventions then have fun creating your own weird and wonderful machine. In sky-rail‚ you can easily build your own quirky machine that has intricate mechanical components. Watch your mechanisms in motion, leaving a trail as they go. Check out saved inventions as they gradually parade across the screen.

Sky-rail manifests as a biological timepiece built with the production values of early watchmakers whose skills were translated to the creation of automata, (mechanical lifeforms driven by cogs.) Here these intricacies of engineering are translated to the computer with the tiny cogs and chains replaced by computational mechanisms.

This project has been commissioned by the NMGW Waterfront Museum, Swansea, co-ordinated by Cywaith Cymru, Artworks Wales and supported by the National Centre of Computer Animation, Bournemouth University.

related links
skyrail - www.sky-rail.net

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TORA @ Peterborough Digital Arts
theatre of restless automata is exhibited in Peterborough, March - May 2006

TORA works at Peterborough Digital Arts

'Theatre of restless automata' is boredomresearch’s largest solo touring exhibition to date, containing computational works inspired by in-depth research into artificial life and digital biology. By exploring the aesthetics of life, they challenge our willingness to see life where there is none. Through a number of glass portals you will be able to watch the complex and fascinating behaviour of the restless automata as they interact in their closed computational universe, triggering sounds that spill out into the space. boredomresearch’s research and earlier computational works will be on display which emphasise the artists fascination in how simple programming rules can create complex behaviour.